Damaged
by Gazlover12-Canada
Summary: AU: Alfred is a young healer who specializes in soul damage. Arthur Kirkland is his first patient, a man who's soul has been harmed severely. UsUk One-shot!


**I have no idea where this idea came from. I suppose I was just bored in studyhall, that then this little one-shot was born from my strange brain. By the way, sorry updates have been slow. I explained things on my profile, basically I just need to focus on school right now. Give me a few more weeks and after finals I'll be posting stories and updating regularly again!**

**Anyways, enjoy!**

He was so beautiful. That was the first thought that came to Alfred's mind when he first lay eyes on Arthur Kirkland. His light unblemished skin looked as soft as silk. His closed eyelids caused his lashes to brush against his pale cheeks. He lay there looking so small, so weak, so fragile against those cream colored bedsheets. Alfred was almost too afraid to touch him.

"...When will he wake?" The words came out as a soft whisper, as if too afraid that talking too loud would cause the sleeping man distress.

"It's hard to tell, Alfred-san. We barely got there in time. Had we been another five minutes, his soul would have been completely taken. He may physically look alright, but internally there's a lot of damage." Kiku, a healer who specialized in soul damage, answered him seriously.

Alfred had only been working at this facility for one short month. In that time, the most he'd done was fill out paperwork, clean, or sort medicine. This was his first real time seeing someone who needed help. But that was what he wanted to do with his life, so it was both exciting and scary to finally be experiencing something like this.

"How...how long will it take him to recover?" He found himself asking.

The older healer shook his head slowly. "There's really no telling, but I will be completely honest. This is one of the more serious cases. Soul damage is no walk through the park. Surely you remember the effects of this from your studies?"

Oh yes, Alfred remembered. Soul damage was terrible. The victim would basically go catatonic. It would be very hard to get through to them. Often memories were lost, and they forgot the simplest things, such as walking, eating, or talking. Worst of all, they wouldn't understand how to control emotion. Recovery was often a long and strenuous process, if it even got to that point.

Alfred had spent a good portion of his life studying soul damage, but actually dealing with it in real life...it was going to be difficult and painful. But he needed to be a hero now, and do what he could. This had been his own picked destiny for four years now, ever since he'd seen a soul attack up close.

This world they lived on...it had some problems. While natural resources were plentiful and technology advances grew stronger everyday, they still hadn't yet overcome the biggest problem yet.

Soul Snatchers.

They weren't human. Sometimes they didn't even have a form, so it was impossible to spot one until it was too late. They fed on souls of all individuals, although it was suspected that the stronger a person's soul was, then the more in danger they were of getting their soul taken.

This poor man, Arthur Kirkland, has been on the receiving side of a Soul Snatcher. Nobody here knew anything about him, other than his name, which had been on his identification slip. He seemed to be some sort of foreigner though, because nobody knew him from the city. One thing was for sure though, his soul must have been pretty strong.

He slowly walked closer to the bed, reaching a hand out to brush back Arthur's soft blonde hair. A part of him hoped for some sort of reaction; A twitch of the eyelid maybe, or a noise. Nothing happened though, and Alfred felt his heart deflate with disappointment. A hand came to rest on his shoulder from behind.

"Don't worry Alfred-san, all we can do is wait for now. I promise that you'll be the first one I tell if he wakes up. He'll be yours to look after."

If he wakes up. That was the phrase that caused the uneasy feeling in Alfred's stomach.

* * *

Exactly two weeks after Alfred had first seen him, Arthur Kirkland had awoken. Over those two weeks he'd began working more closely with the other damaged patients, to get a feel of things. Many of them were interesting, and well on their way to recovering. One of Alfred's favorite patients to interact with was Gilbert Beilschmidt.

Gilbert had undergone some pretty bad soul damage himself. It had been five years ago, and from what Alfred had heard, the albino man had made one of the fastest recoveries ever known. He was basically a fully normal functioning human again….except for one small problem. Gilbert couldn't feel pain.

Say that, for instance, he was stabbed through the leg with a knife. If he was sleeping or not paying attention, then he wouldn't even realize what had happened. While Gilbert called it his superpower, he was in reality a danger to himself. That was why his younger brother Ludwig had taken him to this hospital, and had become a hunter himself.

Hunters did exactly what they were called...except they hunted the Soul Snatchers. That was actually what Alfred had at first wanted to become, but something else just drew him to being a healer. Maybe it was because his twin brother Matthew had wanted to become a healer too.

Anyways, a group of others were in the soul damage section with Gilbert too. There was Vash Zwingli, who had been the newest besides Arthur. Apparently he'd came along five months before Alfred had started working here. Vash was the complete opposite of Gilbert. He felt too much of everything. Kiku called it severe oversensitivity to noise, light, emotions, everything. It made it hard for him to interact with people.

There was also a man named Heracles, who was actually a good friend of Kiku's, and had been here for two years. Heracles slept more than anything else. The only time Alfred had seen him awake was when Kiku had given him some sort of energy shot to forcefully awaken him, so that he could eat properly without a tube and go outside for a bit of sunlight.

One of the patients who had scared Alfred in the beginning was Ivan Braginski. Ivan had once been a hunter, one of the best, but not anymore. He acted strangely childlike, and had the weirdest obsession with sunflowers. The first time Alfred had met him, the man had a fit and refused to come out of the bathroom until he had a sunflower. Of course Alfred, the newbie, had been roped into buying him one from a nearby florist shop. When he'd returned, Ivan had hugged him and said that they were now best friends forever, and that Alfred had become one with him. Creepy...

Alfred didn't see Ivan, or even the rest of the patients that often. They all had personal healers who had been assigned to them. Toris, for instance, was Ivan's assigned healer. Roderich was Vash's, and Elizabeta was Gilberts. Kiku mostly looked after Heracles, but Kiku was also head healer of the soul damage department, so he checked in with everybody.

But Arthur would be Alfred's to heal.

Which brings the topic back to Arthur's awakening. Alfred had been just about to settle down to sleep in his chambers when Kiku called him on his personal intercom and informed him that Arthur was awakening.

Needless to say, all thoughts of sleep instantly left him as he scrambled to put on his lab coat and raced down the halls of the hospital.

* * *

It was bad. Or at least to Alfred it was pretty bad. He'd never actually seen someone in the first stage of recovery. Kiku assured him that all soul damaged patients went through this, and that he should be thankful that Arthur had even awoken. There had been more of a 50% chance of him not even making it out of sleep.

But it was almost as if Arthur wasn't even awake. His eyes were open, sure, but that was it. He was able to breathe on his own, but otherwise he didn't move. Oh but those eyes...Alfred had been breathless upon first seeing them. They were the deepest, most captivating shade of green that he'd even seen. But something was missing from them. Life.

No matter what he did, Alfred couldn't get him to do more than blink. Talking and having conversations with them was said to help, but he couldn't get Arthur out of that state whatsoever. At least for the first few days.

Yes, all he did was lay there, propped upon soft pillows with the bedsheets tucked securely around his waist.

"Where are you from Arthur?" Alfred asked him on the fifth day as he carefully administered a new iv to his patient's arm. It was filled with a newly developed drug that was supposed to enhance brain activity for a short time. Today they were going to try and get Arthur to eat something on his own.

You weren't supposed to make a damaged person do much during the first three to four days of awakening. If they did anything on their own then wonderful, but otherwise you couldn't really try to get them moving. Today that was about to change.

"This might hurt a bit. Just a little pinch, okay?" Alfred promised as he was about to insert the needle into the crook of Arthur's elbow. "I had an iv as a kid once. I broke my leg when I fell off the roof of my house. You see, my brother and I had been playing baseball and it went on the roof. Boy was Mattie scared...he told me not to try and get it. I should have listened to him. I should have always listened to him…"

Alfred stopped talking when he felt Arthur's fingers twitch slightly as the needle quickly and expertly pierced the skin. "There, all done. I'm sorry it hurt. But today you get to have some soup. Francis, I mean Chef Bonnefoy, he's the one making it. He makes all the meals here, and they're always super good!"

As expected, Arthur's didn't respond. Alfred's smile faltered a little. "Well, I'll be back soon. Kiku's coming too! We'll all have lunch up here together, okay?"

After one more moment of complete silence, Alfred gave Arthur's pale hand a gentle squeeze before standing up from his kneeling position. "See you later Artie."

* * *

It had actually been relatively easy to get Arthur to eat. You just had to put the spoon in his hand and help him at first. Eventually the motions became repetitive, and he could do it all by himself. Kiku had only needed to stay for a few minutes before smiling in satisfaction, praising Arthur and patting his leg, leaving to go do his other rounds.

"Man, this soup sure is good!" Alfred said aloud, taking a rather large bite of his own. "It reminds me of the soup Ma used to make. But she only made soup in the winter. During the summer we had a lot of meat. My favorite was burgers. We did live on a cattle ranch you know."

It became easy for him to spill bits of his past to Arthur. Sometimes he even thought that the smaller guy was listening to him.

Soon a few more days passed and it had been a full week since Arthur had awoken. Then one week turned into two, and then finally three. Three full weeks and he hadn't even managed to get a peep out of Arthur. He wouldn't walk, talk, and couldn't even go to the bathroom by himself. Alfred could walk him there now, so at least he didn't have to keep changing bedsheets.

The young healer had spent so much time in that little hospital room, that it basically became his own bedroom. Tonight Alfred had opened up the room's large window, allowing the warm summer breeze to come through. Fireflies flickered in the abyss of darkness outside, and Alfred smiled. They must have been attracted to the flowers on the windowsill, because they were awfully close, within arms reach in fact.

"Want me to catch you a firefly Artie?"

Arthur didn't respond, but Alfred reached out the window anyway. It didn't take long to catch one at all.

"Hold on one sec Art," Alfred said, cupping the bug in one hand while using his other to turn off the light. Light glowed through the cracks of his fingers, and Alfred opened his hand a bit more, showing it to his patient.

"Isn't he pretty?" Alfred murmured. "One time Mattie got the summer's flu, and he couldn't leave his bed for two whole weeks. Every single night I caught him fireflies."

Suddenly Alfred became aware of movement in the room that wasn't his own. Arthur slowly reached his hand out, one shaking finger resting on Alfred's hand, the one that held the firefly. When Alfred looked at Arthur's face, his heart almost stopped.

Arthur was smiling.

* * *

"Bruder, how could you do this to yourself?"

"Aw Luddie, stop being such a worrywart. I was only testing it out."

"You impaled your hand with a letter opener. On purpose!"

This was what Alfred hard when he walked into Gilbert's room. Elizabeta had called and asked for Alfred to bring some antiseptic and bandages. Now he understood why. Gilbert had hit some sort of vein on his hand, and blood was dripping everywhere. Thank gosh the floors weren't carpeted or anything.

"Thank you Alfred," The female healer, who had been holding a tissue against Gilbert's wounds, said as he passed her the requested items. "Let me see your hand Gilbert. We really need that bleeding to stop."

"You guys are just a bunch of sissies!" Gilbert scoffed. "I didn't feel a damn thing. I still don't."

Ludwig fumed. "That doesn't mean you need to hurt yourself!"

"I'm not some sort of invalid. Don't you realize how much this sucks? I shouldn't be here...I'm not helpless!"

"Of course not, but you are damaged." Elizabeta told him gently. "We're only trying to help you."

"I don't need your damn help. I'm...I'm like a superhero! I can do whatever the hell I want!"

"Why don't you take Ludwig from the room?" Elizabeta whispered to Alfred. "I want to try and get him calmed down to I can bandage him. I'd hate to have to sedate him. I thought he was doing so good…"

Needless to say, that wasn't one of Gilbert's better days. Alfred really hated to see all of these different people suffering. It just wasn't fail. A soul was something private...important. It was completely horrid and unfair for another creature to ruin someone's soul.

Since Alfred was still a newbie here and they were understaffed that day, he was also roped into going on rounds to make sure everyone was okay. He just wanted to return back up to Arthur's room. Maybe it was sort of creepy, but when Arthur came fully aware back into the world, he wanted himself to be the first thing that the other lay his eyes on.

That meant being with him as often as possible.

* * *

Two days after it had been a month, something incredible happened. It was actually a really sad day though. The rain was pouring down hard, and Alfred was wiping a cool cloth over Arthur's head. You see, he'd developed a mild fever. Kiku told him it was nothing to be worried about, but Alfred couldn't help it.

As a big bolt of lightning struck, Alfred paused in his rhythmic motions of moving the cloth around. Then, once the large boom of thunder followed, he chuckled. "You know, when I was younger I would always watch the thunderstorms. Mattie always had to drag me indoors since he was afraid I'd get sick."

He gave a breathless chuckle as the memories began to swarm him once more. "You know, now I don't really like them too much."

Arthur's eyelids fluttered, and he gave a small moan.

"It's okay, I'm right here!" Alfred soothed him. "I'm used to this...Mattie got sick a lot more than I ever did. I have no idea why...I mean, on the inside his soul had always been so much stronger than mine."

Lightning cracked once more, and Alfred felt his throat growing tighter. "Listen Arthur...please come back to the world. I've been trying so hard, and it's scaring me. With you, there's the possibility of healing. You still have hope."

Arthur's features seemed more relaxed, and Alfred leaned in close. "Artie? I have something that I need to tell you. I mean, I feel so close to you and you haven't even said a word out loud. But that doesn't matter, because you deserve to know this."

He swallowed and continued. "You see, my brother Mattie didn't get this type of chance to heal. Four years ago when I was fifteen, I lost him forever. The snatcher stole his soul completely. He was sick in bed, and I was outside watching a thunderstorm. Ma was out, and Dad was out working the ranch. He was my responsibility, but when I came inside he was cold, and completely gone."

He felt something wet trail down his cheeks, and stared down at his hands as he continued to talk. "Bodies don't last long without souls. He died only hours later. If I had been inside, watching him...I could have saved him. I was studying to become a hunter you know. It was Mattie who wanted to be a healer. It was his dream, really. To help people and their souls. At first I was doing this for him, but I'm really starting to like this...but should I enjoy this job when it should be my brother sitting here instead?"

"Don't cry."

Alfred startled, jerking upwards at the unfamiliar voice. It was a beautiful voice, with a delightful British accent. Forest green orbs were suddenly staring deeply into his own, and the American gasped silently.

"A-Arthur? You're...talking?"

A hand reached over to touch Alfred's wet cheeks.

"D-Don't cry," Arthur whispered. "Please don't cry."

My god. Arthur was actually speaking. For a moment all Alfred could do was gape in absolute astoundment, until he realized that he needed to speak back. "I'm not crying anymore. Oh gosh, oh Artie! Say something again please?"

The smaller man frowned, hand still touching the other's cheek. "Please don't cry."

Alfred smiled, taking Arthur's hand into his own. "Okay Artie, you got it. I won't cry anymore."

He then squeezed the pale frail hand, and Arthur squeezed back. Alfred knew from that day forward that things would be okay. He knew that Arthur would be okay. All of them would be, within time.

A soul is a precious thing.

**Please give me a second of your time to tell me what you thought of this! I'm not sure if it was complete crap or not. I mean, I had a lot of fun writing it, but I'm not sure how it turned out.**


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